East Coast Main Line
Debate between Lord McLoughlin and Graeme Morrice(9 years, 5 months ago)
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Mr McLoughlin
I do indeed. My hon. Friend can look forward to those extra services for his constituency, along with the others to which I have referred. We are talking, basically, about an increase of some 33% of services across the board, with 75 new destinations being served as a result of this morning’s announcement.
Graeme Morrice (Livingston) (Lab)
Unlike the currently successful and profitable publicly owned service on the east coast main line, the previous two private operators failed—a point raised by my hon. Friends. What guarantee can the Secretary of State give that this latest franchise will not be third time unlucky?
Mr McLoughlin
Let me simply point out that a number of things have changed. The hon. Gentleman refers to franchises that were left by the last Government. Issues have been changed by this Government, and all the other franchises on the railways are currently running to the budgets that we have required of them. Some of them are subsidy receiving, but most are premium payments.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord McLoughlin and Graeme Morrice(10 years, 5 months ago)
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Mr McLoughlin
I refer the right hon. Lady back to the time when she was a supporting member of the previous Government, when the then Secretary of State said:
“I do not believe that it would be in the public interest for us to have a nationalised train operating company indefinitely…because of our recent experience on rail franchising”.—[Official Report, House of Lords, 1 July 2009; Vol. 712, c. 232.]
Rail franchising has led to the biggest growth in rail usage in this country that we have ever seen—up from 750 million to 1.5 billion passenger journeys. I want that improvement to continue, and that is why huge investment is going into the east coast main line.
Graeme Morrice (Livingston) (Lab)
12. The publicly run east coast main line franchise will have returned £800 million to the taxpayer by the end of this financial year, and all its profits are reinvested in the service. Why are the coalition Government privatising this successful public operator, given that the previous two private operators failed?
Mr McLoughlin
As I pointed out to the right hon. Member for Stirling (Mrs McGuire), I am following the policies that have taken the rail industry from 750 million to 1.5 billion passenger journeys. I am happy to speak for the passengers and for all the people who work on the railways; it seems as though Labour Members are happy to speak just for the union barons. They can speak for the barons; I will speak for the workers, the consumers and the people who use our railways.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord McLoughlin and Graeme Morrice(11 years, 5 months ago)
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Mr McLoughlin
I do remember my hon. Friend’s time as our party’s spokesman on post offices. Indeed, I was the Minister with responsibility for the Post Office at one point in history, so I well appreciate how important post offices are to our rural communities. It is important that they win business, but they have to compete for that business. They have done so very successfully in this case.
Graeme Morrice (Livingston) (Lab)
8. If he will make it his policy to reinstate national targets to reduce deaths and serious injuries on the roads.
Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)
13. If he will make it his policy to reinstate national targets to reduce deaths and serious injuries on the roads.
The Secretary of State for Transport (Mr Patrick McLoughlin)
The Government have no plans to reinstate national targets. The strategic framework for road safety sets out measures that we intend to take to continue to reduce casualties. Those include making forecasts of the casualty numbers that we might expect to see through to 2030 if our measures, and the actions of local authorities, are successful.
Graeme Morrice
With the numbers killed and seriously injured on Britain’s roads increasing for the first time in 17 years, will the Secretary of State think again about the decision to axe national targets on reducing deaths and serious injuries, which helped to focus efforts across Government, local government and the agencies?
Mr McLoughlin
I will never take safety lightly; it must always be uppermost in the mind of the Secretary of State for Transport. The United Kingdom has a very good record. In 1979, the number of people killed on the roads was 6,352. In 2011, the number was 1,901. That is still far too many, but the country has been heading in the right direction.
West Coast Main Line
Debate between Lord McLoughlin and Graeme Morrice(11 years, 6 months ago)
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Mr McLoughlin
I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who is also a user of the west coast main line. The answer to his question is “definitely”.
Graeme Morrice (Livingston) (Lab)
In view of this fiasco and other potential franchise debacles, will the Government now realise that the game is up and take the west coast main line back fully into public ownership, as is the case with the east coast service?